ness and profligacy. The present cause takes in the entire character of your country, which may suffer in the eyes of all Europe by your verdict. This is the first prosecution of the kind brought forward to view.-It is the great experiment of the informers of Ireland, to ascertain how far they can carry on a traffic in human blood! This cannibal informer, this demon, O'Brien, greedy after human gore, has fifteen other victims in reserve, if, from your verdict, he receives the unhappy man at the bar! Fifteen more of your fellow citizens are to be tried on his evidence! Be you then their saviours; let your verdict snatch them from his ravening maw, and interpose between yourselves and endless remorse!

I know, gentleman, I would but insult you, if I were to apologise for detaining you thus long: if I have apology to make to any person, it is to my client, for thus delaying his acquittal. Sweet is the recollection of having done justice, in that hour when the hand of death presses on the human heart! Sweet is the hope which it gives birth to! From you I demand that justice for my client, your innocent and unfortunate fellow subject at the bar; and may you have for it a more lasting reward than the perishable crown we read of, which the ancients placed on the brow of him who saved in battle the life of a fellow citizen.

If you should ever be assailed by the hand of the informer, may you find an all-powerful refuge in the example which you shall set this day; earnestly do I pray that you may never experience what it is to count the tedious hours in captivity, pining in the damps and gloom of the dungeon, while the wicked one is going about at large, seeking whom he may devour. There is another than a human tribunal, where the best of us will have occasion to look back on the little good we have done. In that awful trial, oh! may your verdict this day assure your hopes, and give you strength and consolation in the presence of an ADJUDGING GOD.

[Here ended Mr. Curran's address: and to say that the reporter has done it justice, is a presumption which he disclaims. To keep pace with the rapid flow of his eloquence, is impossible; the hearer stands in astonishment and rapture, viewing the majesty of its course; and he who most admires it, is least able to record it.]

MR. FINNEY WAS ACQUITTED.

SPEECH OF MR. CURRAN,

IN DEFENCE OF MR. PETER FINNERTY,

ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22d, 1797.

ABSTRACT OF THE INDICTMENT.

MR. PETER FINNERTY being put to the bar, the pannel of the petty jurors was called; there appeared above one hundred and forty names on it.

The clerk of the crown then gave Mr. Finnerty in charge of the jury, upon an indictment, stating, "That at the general assizes, and general gaol delivery, holden at Carrickfergus, in and for the county of Antrim, on the seventeenth day of April, in the thirtyseventh year of the king, before the honourable Matthias Finucane, one of the judges of his majesty's court of common pleas in Ireland, and the honourable Denis George, one of the barons of his majesty's court of exchequer in Ireland, justices and commissioners assigned to deliver the gaol of our said lord, the king, in and for the county of Antrim, of the several prisoners and malefactors therein, one William Orr, late of Farranshane, in said county Antrim, yeoman, was in lawful manner indicted for feloniously administering a certain oath and engagement, upon a book, to one Hugh Wheatly; which oath and engagement imported to bind the said Hugh Wheatly, who then and there took the same, to be of an association, brotherhood, and society, formed for seditious purposes; and also, for feloniously causing, procuring, and inducing said Hugh Wheatly to take an oath of said import last mentioned, and also for feloniously administering to said Hugh Wheatly another oath, importing to bind said Hugh Wheatly not to inform or give evidence against any brother, associate, or confederate of a certain society then and there formed; and also, for feloniously causing, procuring, and seducing said Hugh Wheatly to take an oath of said

import last mentioned. And afterwards at Carrickfergus aforesaid, before the right honourable Barry lord Yelverton, lord chief baron of his majesty's court of exchequer, in Ireland, and the honourable Tankerville Chamberlaine, one of his majesty's justices of his court of chief place in Ireland, at a general assizes, &c., on the sixteenth day of September, in the thirty-seventh year of the king, said William Orr, by the verdict of a certain jury of said county of Antrim, between our said lord, the king, and said William Orr, taken of and for the felony aforesaid, in due manner, was tried, convicted, and attainted, and for the same was duly executed; and that he, well knowing the premises, but being a wicked and ill disposed person, and of unquiet conversation and disposition, and devising and intending to molest and disturb the peace and public tranquillity of this kingdom of Ireland; and to bring and draw the trial aforesaid, and the verdict thereon, for our said lord, the king, against this William Orr given, and the due course of law in that behalf had, as aforesaid, into hatred, contempt, and scandal, with all the liege subjects of our said lord, the king; and to persuade, and cause the subjects of our said lord, the king, to believe, that the trial aforesaid was unduly had, and that the said William Orr, did undeservedly die in manner aforesaid; and that his excellency, John Jeffreys, earl Camden, the lord lieutenant of this kingdom, after the conviction aforesaid, ought to have extended to the said William Orr, his majesty's gracious pardon of the felonies aforesaid; and that in not so extending such pardon, he, the said lord lieutenant, had acted inhumanly, wickedly, and unjustly, and in a manner unworthy of the trust which had been committed to him by our said lord, the king, in that behalf; and that the said lord lieutenant, in his government of this kingdom, had acted unjustly, cruelly, and oppressively, to his majesty's subjects therein. And to fulfil and bring to effect his most wicked and detestable vices and intentions aforesaid, on the twenty-sixth of October, in the thirty-seventh year of the king, at Mountrath street aforesaid, city of Dublin aforesaid, falsely, wickedly, maliciously, and seditiously, did print and publish, and cause and procure to be printed and published, in a certain newspaper entitled 'the press,' a certain false, wicked, malicious, and seditious libel, of and concerning the said trial, conviction, attainder, and execution of the said William Orr, as aforesaid, and of and concerning the said

lord lieutenant and his government of this kingdom, and his majesty's ministers employed by him in his government of this kingdom, according to the tenor and effect following, to wit, 'The death of Mr. Orr, [meaning the said execution of the said William Orr,] the nation has pronounced one of the most sanguinary and savage acts that has disgraced the laws. In perjury, did you not hear, my lord, [meaning the said lord lieutenant,] the verdict [meaning the verdict aforesaid] was given? Perjury accompanied with terror, as terror has marked every step of your government. [Meaning the government of this kingdom aforesaid, by the said lord lieutenant.] Vengeance and desolation were to fall on those who would not plunge themselves in blood. These were not strong enough: Against the express law of the land, not only was drink introduced to the jury, [meaning the jury aforesaid,] but drunkenness itself, beastly and criminal drunkenness, was employed to procure the murder of a better man [meaning the said execution of the said William Orr] than any that now surrounds you, [meaning the said lord lieutenant.]' And in another part thereof, according to tenor and effect following, to wit: Repentance, which is a slow virtue, hastened, however, to declare the innocence of the victim, [meaning the said William Orr,] the mischief [meaning the said conviction of the said William Orr] which perjury had done, truth now stept forward to repair. Neither was she too late, had humanity formed any part of your counsels, [meaning the counsels of the said lieutenant.] Stung with remorse, on the return of reason, part of his jury, [meaning the jury aforesaid,] solemnly and soberly made oath, that their verdict [meaning the verdict aforesaid] had been given under the unhappy influence of intimidation and drink; and in the most serious affidavit that ever was made, by acknowledging their crime, endeavoured to atone to God and to their country, for the sin into which they had been seduced.' And in another part thereof, according to the tenor and effect following, to wit: And though the innocence of the accused, [meaning the said William Orr, had even remained doubtful, it was your duty, [meaning the duty of the said lord lieutenant,] my lord, and you [meaning the said lord lieutenant] had no exemption from that duty, to have interposed your arm, and saved him [meaning the said William Orr] from the death [meaning the execution aforesaid] that perjury, drunkenness, and reward had prepared for him,

[meaning the said William Orr.] Let not the nation be told that you [meaning the said lord lieutenant] are a passive instrument in the hands of others; if passive you be, then is your office a shadow indeed. If an active instrument, as you ought to be, you [meaning the said lord lieutenant] did not perform the duty which the laws required of you; you, [meaning the said lord lieutenant] did not exercise the prerogative of mercy; that mercy which the constitution had entrusted to you [meaning the said lord lieutenant] for the safety of the subject, by guarding him from the oppression of wicked men. Innocent it appears he [meaning the said William Orr] was, his blood [meaning the blood of the said William Orr] has been shed, and the precedent indeed is awful.' And in another part thereof, according to the tenor and effect following, to wit. But suppose the evidence of Wheatly had been true, what was the offence of Mr. Orr [meaning the said William Orr]? Not that he had taken an oath of blood and extermination for then he had not suffered? but that he [meaning the said William Orr] had taken an oath of charity and of union, of humanity and peace, he [meaning the said William Orr] has suffered. Shall we then be told that your government [meaning the government of this kingdom aforesaid, by the said lord lieutenant] will conciliate public opinion, or that the people will not continue to look for a better?' And in another part thereof, according to the tenor and effect following, that is to say: 'Is it to be wondered, that a successor of Lord Fitzwilliam should sign the death-warrant of Mr. Orr [meaning the said William Orr]. Mr. Pitt had learned that a merciful lord lieutenant was unsuited to a government of violence. It was no compliment to the native clemency of a Camden, that he sent you [meaning the said lord lieutenant] into Ireland—and what has been our portion under the change, but massacre and rape, military murders, desolation and terror.' And in another part thereof, according to the tenor and effect here following, that is to say: "Feasting in your castle in the midst of your myrmidons and bishops, you [meaning the said lord lieutenant] have little concerned yourself about the expelled and miserable cottager, whose dwelling, at the moment of your mirth, was in flames, his wife and his daughter then under the violation of some commissioned ravager, his son agonizing on the bayonet, and his helpless infants crying in vain for mercy. These are lamentations that stain not the house of carousal. Un